Master Food Preservers team up with the fair

The El Dorado County Fair begins Thursday, June 13 and continues through Sunday, June 16. The Master Food Preservers of El Dorado County will be busy before the fair receiving home preservation entries, classifying the entries, organizing and running entries to the judges and staffing its booth during the fair.

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The El Dorado County Fair begins Thursday, June 13 and continues through Sunday, June 16. The Master Food Preservers of El Dorado County will be busy before the fair receiving home preservation entries, classifying the entries, organizing and running entries to the judges and staffing its booth during the fair.

Visitors can look at the many items entered in the various home food preservation categories. Be sure to stop at the MFP booth in the Marshall Building and get a free taste of sample food made from a safe and recommended home food preservation recipe.

The samples offer a glimpse of many ways food can be preserved at home. The MFP volunteers in the booth will have recipes for the samples and for many other home preservation projects for sale, at a nominal cost.

The volunteers enjoy talking about food preservation and about the many ways the MFP program helps people learn about safe home food preservation.

Be sure to find out about upcoming public education classes being offered this summer and fall. These classes remain free to the public and begin the first week in July. Each week a different aspect of safe home food preservation will be presented and demonstrated by a team of MFP volunteers.

The MFP volunteers are excited to collaborate with the El Dorado County Fair as its new location for the public classes this year on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

After the closing day of the fair, the MFP volunteers remain to take down displays and return sample products to the competitors. The volunteers also record the winning entrants and help distribute prizes. The MFP volunteers work long, hard hours to present their home-based craft to the crowds at the fair.

MFP volunteers reached out to El Dorado County youth to mentor kids in safe home food preservation. Twenty-five youth attended the March “Junior’s Jams & Jellies” event to make jam or jelly entries for the fair. Ninety-three jars of preserves were made, with 25 fair entries submitted in the youth division. The MFPs coordinated with the El Dorado County Fair for this event.

The MFPs thank El Dorado County Fair, El Dorado Disposal, Strauss Wholesale food service, and Placerville Hardware for donations of the site, jars, pectin, sugar and entry fees. A thank you to the MFPs for the one-on-one mentoring: Tracy Wickstrom, Cheryl Knapp, Claudia Littlejohn, Gene Kendall, Nancy Noble, Donna Lockwood, Eric Wickstrom and Christi Brower. A special thanks to Master Gardeners Gary Littlejohn and Gerry Knapp who set up a table and showed the kids blossoms of the type of fruit they were using.

The El Dorado County Fairgrounds is located at 100 Placerville Drive in Placerville.

For questions about safe home food preservation or to schedule a speaker for organizations or clubs on the topics of food safety or food preservation call Master Food Preservers at 530-621-5506.

For more information visit the Master Food Preserver’s Website at cecentralsierra.ucanr.org/Master_Food_Preservers/. Sign up to receive its e-newsletter at ucanr.org/mfpenews/.